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DOCTOR WHO
HORROR OF FANG ROCK

Written by
Terrance Dicks

Part One

[INT. Lamp gallery]

(It is a dark and cloudy night at sea. We see the stark outline of a lighthouse rising from the rocks. Dwarfing its beacon - which we have seen briefly - in brightness and size, a pink-purple object streaks quite slowly down from high in the sky, like no shooting star known on Earth. When it reaches the sea, the pink glow suffuses the water around it for a moment. Then all appears still.
We then see a young man in the lighthouse's lamp gallery squinting through a telescope. Puzzled, he raises the hand-held telescope again and addresses another of the lighthouse crew.)
VINCE: 'Ere, Reuben. Come and look, quick.
(A weathered-looking older man, the heavy-set REUBEN, walks over.)
REUBEN: What is it, boy?
VINCE: This light, shot across the sky. Went under the sea it did, and the sea was all glowing. Over there. (He points.)
(REUBEN has a look. He does so again.)
REUBEN: Nothing there now. (He hands the telescope back to VINCE.)
VINCE: Not now, maybe. I told you - it went under the sea.
REUBEN: It could have been a - what do they call them? - meteor.
VINCE: (having another look) Mmm. Weren't far off.
(They are joined by the third lighthouse-keeper, who comes into view as he speaks.)
BEN: (a uniformed man with a moustache) Oh, sightseeing now, are we? Hoping to spot some of them bathing belles on the beach, eh?
REUBEN: Ah, Vince here's been seeing stars.
VINCE: I saw a light. Clear across the sky it came and went under the sea.
BEN: Shooting star, eh?
VINCE: Weren't no shooting star. I've seen them before.
REUBEN: Bring you luck, boy, that will. Bit of luck coming for you. (He touches VINCE on the shoulder and heads inside from the gallery.)
VINCE: On this rock? Not till my three month is up.
BEN: Well, whatever it was, it's gone now. So long as it isn't a hazard to navigation, we don't have to bother with it.
(REUBEN has the beacon working again.)
VINCE: It were all red and glowing.
BEN: Aye, well, I've heard enough about now, lad. I'm off downstairs for my supper. You just forget it.
(He heads down. VINCE remains.
We then see the view from something heading in from the sea. This is a round view surrounded by green and blue.)

[INT. Crew room]

(BEN is serving himself food.)
REUBEN: (seated at the table) The old days were simple enough. You just filled her up, trimmed the wick, and that old lamp just went burning away steady as you like.
BEN: (taking a seat to eat) It wasn't only the lamp that burned sometimes, though, was it? What about all those fires they had, eh? Towers gutted, men killed.
REUBEN: Well, carelessness that was. That or drink. Oil's safe enough if you treat her right.
BEN: Now listen, Reuben, I've seen the inside of some of them old oil lighthouses-
REUBEN: (pointing at BEN with his spoon) I served twenty year in one.
BEN: Like the inside of a chimney they was. Grease and soot everywhere, floor covered with oil and bits of wick.
REUBEN: Never, mate, never.
BEN: And as for the light... (laughs) Oh dear, oh me. You couldn't see it from the inside, never mind from the out. Great clouds of black smoke soon as they were lit.
REUBEN: If your electricity's so good, why are they going back to oil? You tell me that.
BEN: Ah, now that's an oil vapour system. That's a different thing altogether. They're going back to that as they reckon as how that's cheaper, see.
REUBEN: Course it's cheaper.
(The speaking trumpet whistles. REUBEN gets up to pick it up.)
REUBEN: Time they've paid out all that coal. (into the brass tube) Ahoy.

[INT. Lamp room]

VINCE: That you, Reuben? (he listens) King Edward, eh? Well, your Majesty, will you tell the principal keeper that there's a fog coming up here like nobody's business.

[INT. Crew room]

(REUBEN hangs up the speaking tube, placing it back in its cradle on the wall.)
REUBEN: Vince says there's a fog coming up.
BEN: Fog? There weren't no sign of that earlier.
REUBEN: He reckons it's a thick 'un, Ben.
BEN: (standing) I'd best go and see for myself. After all, the boy's only learning.
(He grabs his coat and leaves. REUBEN too stands.
Outside, the TARDIS materialises on the rocks outside the lighthouse.)

[INT. Lamp gallery]

BEN: I never seen a fog come in like that afore. And thick!
REUBEN: (rubbing his hands together) Worst thing for sailors that ever was.
BEN: Do you feel that cold too?
REUBEN: Aye.
BEN: That come from Iceland, I reckon.
VINCE: It's come from where I saw that thing fall.
BEN: Oh, get along with you, boy. It's about time you got that siren started.
(VINCE heads away to do so.)
REUBEN: He might be right, Ben. It do seem unnatural.
BEN: Not you too. (to VINCE) And I want a blast every two minutes, and I don't mean ten.
(VINCE goes back into the lamp room for a moment, and REUBEN laughs.)
REUBEN: Another thing with oil - it gives a better light in fog.
(The foghorn sounds.)
BEN: Oh, rubbish. Electricity's just as good, and a darn sight more reliable.
(The light goes out.)
REUBEN: Reliable? (He chuckles.)

[EXT. Outside the TARDIS]

(LEELA stands outside the TARDIS, not dressed for this weather.)
LEELA: You said I would like Brighton. Well, I do not.
DOCTOR [OC]: Does this look like Brighton? (He walks toward her.)
LEELA: I do not know.
DOCTOR: It's not even Hove. It could be Worthing.
LEELA: The machine has failed again?
DOCTOR: Oh, not really, not failed. We're on the right planet, in the right time, roughly in the right general direction. Assuming this is Worthing.
LEELA: You cannot tell.
DOCTOR: Because the localised condition of planetary atmospheric condensation caused a malfunction in the visual orientation circuits. Or, to put it another way, we got lost in the fog. Never mind. Easy enough to pop back in and try again. That's odd.
LEELA: What is?
DOCTOR: A lighthouse without a light.

[INT. Lamp gallery]

(The foghorn sounds again. BEN is in the basement, taking a lamp to check the generator. No problems are evident. The light comes back on of its own accord, and he looks about in consternation.
We return to the gallery.)
VINCE: Hey, good old Ben. Didn't take him long, did it?
REUBEN: Working, not working, working again. You never know where you are with it, do you?
(BEN, clearly not knowing what's up himself, heads back up the stairs. We see a green glow in the corner after he has gone.)

[INT. Crew room]

(BEN enters as VINCE pulls a jumper over his head.)
VINCE: I just came down for my heavy jersey. It's freezing up there.
BEN: It's worse in the generator room, even with the boiler.
VINCE: Well, you repaired her, anyway.
BEN: No. Lights came on by 'emselves.
VINCE: What, for no reason?
BEN: It's got me flummoxed. There's something going on here tonight, something I don't understand.
(BEN opens the log book, to make notes about the evening's events.)

[EXT. Shore]

LEELA: Look, the light is shining in that tower.
DOCTOR: Oh, good. We'll just knock on the door, get directions, and we'll be on our way.
(The foghorn sounds again.)
LEELA: (shouting) What is that noise?
DOCTOR: Foghorn.
LEELA: What?
DOCTOR: I said it's a foghorn! It warns the ships off these rocks. Mightn't spot the light in this fog. You know what ships are. (heading off) We saw some on the Thames, remember?
LEELA: I feel something wrong here.

[INT. Lamp room]

VINCE: Old Ben's worried.
REUBEN: So he should be. His precious electricity.
(VINCE hands REUBEN some warmer clothing.)
VINCE: Writing it all down in the log, he is. Says he can't understand it.
(And the light stops again.)
REUBEN: Done it again, see?
VINCE: He'll be spitting blood, won't he? (He laughs.)

[INT. Generator room]

(BEN heads back down to the generator room. All is running smoothly; there's simply no light. BEN is not alone. From behind a door emerges a glowing something. From its viewpoint, we see BEN backing up in fear. Crackling, perhaps sucking-like sounds are heard as he is backed up against the wall. Glass shatters.)
BEN: Arrrgh!

[INT. Lamp room]

VINCE: (sounding the foghorn) Over two minutes.
REUBEN: Reckon it's not coming on this time.
VINCE: Make no difference, not in this weather. Have their bows right onto Fang Rock afore they see our old lamp.
REUBEN: Aye, this is a queer 'un. No cause for it.
VINCE: Cold air and warm air mixing. That's the cause.
REUBEN: I've been thirty years in the service, Vince. One look at the sky and I know when fog's coming. Today was clear as clear.
VINCE: Maybe I'd best go down and see if Ben needs a hand. (VINCE starts to leave.)
REUBEN: You do that, boy. (shaking his head, to himself) T'ain't natural.

[INT. Generator room]

(The DOCTOR opens the door into the room and whistles.)
DOCTOR: Keeper?
(He steps inside, with LEELA following. She closes the door.)
DOCTOR: The generator's working. I wonder what's happening to the power.
LEELA: I'm not a teshnician.
DOCTOR: It could be shorting out, I suppose.
LEELA: And I suppose you are going to mend it?
DOCTOR: What, without asking permission? I wouldn't dream of it. Let's talk to the crew first. This way. (heading for the stairs) Teshnician?

[INT. Top of stairs]

(VINCE is holding a lamp, ready to head down to the generator room.)
DOCTOR [OC]: Anyone at home?
VINCE: That you, Ben?
DOCTOR [OC]: No, it isn't.
(LEELA appears, with the DOCTOR not far behind.)
VINCE: 'Ere, who are you, then?
LEELA: I'm Leela.
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor. How do you do? (shaking VINCE's hand) You seem to be having some trouble here.
VINCE: How'd you get here?
LEELA: We came in the TARDIS.
DOCTOR: (glancing at her) We're mislaid mariners. Our craft's parked on the other side of the island.
VINCE: Oh. Oh, you got lost in the fog, did you? Oh, ho, ho.
DOCTOR: Yes.
VINCE: Oh, you'd best come up to the crew room.
DOCTOR: Good.
(VINCE leads the way.)
VINCE [OC]: Where was you heading for?
DOCTOR: Worthing.
LEELA: Brighton.

[INT. Crew room]

VINCE: You did get lost, didn't you? (entering) I'll get you some victuals soon as we're sorted out. You'll not want to go on in this fog. Small craft, is she?
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: No.
DOCTOR: Well, small in some ways.
LEELA: Yes, but big in others.
DOCTOR: What's the trouble here?
VINCE: The generator keeps playing up. Lights go off, then they come on again for no reason.
DOCTOR: Tricky things, the early generators.
VINCE: Oh, ours is the latest modern design, sir. Still, it's driving Ben wild.
DOCTOR: (as he looks through the log) Ben? Who's Ben?
VINCE: He's the engineer.
DOCTOR: Just the two of you, are there?
VINCE: Three, sir. Old Reuben's up in the lamp room. Killing himself, he is. Fit to bust.
LEELA: He's crippled?
VINCE: No. Oh, I mean, no, he's one of the old-fashioned sort, you see. Never been really happy since they took out the oil. Hates electricity.
DOCTOR: (reading the log book) Yes, I know the type. In the early days of oil, he'd have said there's nothing like a really large candle, eh? (He laughs.)
VINCE: Aye, that's Reuben right enough.
DOCTOR: Where's Ben now?
VINCE: Eh? (He pauses from clearing away the dishes from earlier.)
DOCTOR: Ben. Why isn't he working on the generator?
VINCE: Well, he is, sir. You must have seen him.
DOCTOR: No. No, I didn't.
VINCE: Oh, he must have stepped out for a moment and you missed him in the fog.
LEELA: If he had been there, I would have heard.
VINCE: I'd better go and look for him.
DOCTOR: No, that's all right, that's all right. What's your name?
VINCE: Vince, sir. Vince Hawkins.
DOCTOR: I'll go, Mister Hawkins. I'm something of an engineer myself. I might be able to help. Have a look after the young lady.
VINCE: Right you are, sir.
(The DOCTOR exits, with LEELA shutting the door behind him. The foghorn sounds again.)
VINCE: This is quite a treat for me, miss.
LEELA: (looking closely at the telegraph machine) Is it?
VINCE: Oh, don't touch that, please, miss. Oh yes, it's lonely up in the lighthouse, you see. I go out sometimes and talk to the seals, you know, just to get a change from Reuben and Ben.
LEELA: Seals are animals?
VINCE: Well, yes.
LEELA: That is stupid. You should talk often with the old ones of your tribe. That is the only way to learn.
VINCE: I'll get you a hot drink, miss.
LEELA: I could do with some dry clothes more than a hot drink.
VINCE: Oh, I'm afraid we don't have nothing suitable for a lady.
LEELA: I'm no lady, Vince. The clothes you are wearing will be most suitable.
(She removes her skirt forthwith. She starts giving her damp petticoats a shake.)
VINCE: These are men's clothes, miss. Working clothes.
(He turns to face her and, embarrassed, turns back round again.)
VINCE: I'll, er, I'll find you something, miss. I'll, I'll go and find something.
(She is untying the high neck of her blouse as VINCE leaves.)

[INT. Generator room]

DOCTOR: (heading downstairs) Ben?
(He opens the door to the outside.)
DOCTOR: Ben! Ben! No Ben.
(He closes the door, and the lights return. He throws his scarf over his shoulder and walks to the side of the generator, pondering.)
DOCTOR: Curiouser and curiouser.
(He continues on his way around the generator.)
VINCE: Well done, sir. You're an engineer and no mistake. Doctor, where are you?
DOCTOR: I'm over here.
VINCE: Oh. Found the trouble, then?
DOCTOR: Yes, I always find trouble.
VINCE: Oh, Ben'll be pleased.
DOCTOR: I doubt it.
VINCE: Oh, he will, sir. He couldn't make head nor tail of what were wrong. I wonder where he's got to.
(LEELA descends the stairs, wearing trousers and a jersey similar in style to Vince's. She is rolling up her sleeves, which are a bit long.)
DOCTOR: He's over there, dead. He's been dead some little time.
VINCE: What? Ben. Oh, no!
LEELA: What killed him?
DOCTOR: As far as I can tell, a massive electric shock. He died instantly.
VINCE: (examining BEN) The generator? But he were always so careful.
LEELA: It was very dark.
VINCE: (about to start crying) He had a lantern. Oh, I don't believe it.
DOCTOR: Vince, you'd better go and tell old Reuben what's happened. Go on.
VINCE: Right, sir. (He heads upstairs.)
LEELA: You do not believe the machine killed him? Then what?
(The DOCTOR holds up a hand. He then heads behind the generator and steps through an arch in the dark corner. This is where the green glow was earlier. LEELA gets out her knife. We hear metal sounds, and the DOCTOR soon emerges with a shovel in his hand.)
DOCTOR: I thought there might have been something nasty in the coal hole. There's something nasty somewhere.
LEELA: A sea creature?
DOCTOR: What, that can open and shut doors and doesn't so much as leave a wet footprint and has the ability to drain off electricity?
(He bends down and picks up a twisted mass of metal.)
LEELA: What is wrong?
DOCTOR: That's Ben's lantern.

[INT. Lamp room]

(REUBEN crosses himself.)
REUBEN: Ben knew every cursed inch of that there machine. Don't make sense, boy.
VINCE: That's what this Doctor says. Electric shock.
REUBEN: Foreign, is he?
VINCE: I don't think so. Though 'tis true the young lady speaks a bit strange. Why?
REUBEN: Could be spies.
VINCE: Spies! Well, what would spies want on Fang Rock?
REUBEN: There's the Frogs, the Russkies, Germans too. Can't trust none of them.
VINCE: Oh, they ain't spies.
REUBEN: All this started just about the time they got here. Don't you forget that.
VINCE: You don't think, you ain't saying that they might have done for Ben?
REUBEN: I am saying there's strange things afoot here tonight, and them two could be at the bottom of it. Reckon I'll just go and take a look at 'em.
VINCE: 'Ere, Reuben.
REUBEN: Aye?
VINCE: You'll have to send a message to the shore station. We'll want a relief boat to take Ben away.
REUBEN: Aye, I'll see to it, boy, soon as it's light. Where is he?
VINCE: Generator room. Oh, I know it don't sound respectful.
REUBEN: That it don't.
VINCE: It's only till the boat gets here.
REUBEN: He won't rest easy, you know, boy.
VINCE: Eh?
REUBEN: If Ben was killed by that dang-blasted machine, there'll be anger in his soul. And when they die like that, they'll never rest easy.

[INT. Crew room]

(After a shot of Fang Rock, we see the DOCTOR musing while LEELA sits at the table, eating.)
DOCTOR: This is very interesting, Leela. It's called a Marconi Wireless Telegraph. You can send messages a long way with this.
REUBEN: You leave that be, if you don't mind, mister.
DOCTOR: Sorry. Shouldn't you be using it to report Ben's death?
REUBEN: Wireless won't bring Ben back, will it?
DOCTOR: No.
REUBEN: I'll use the semaphore in the morning.
DOCTOR: Mm. You do know how to operate it?
REUBEN: Course, we all does, but Ben-
DOCTOR: Was the expert.
(REUBEN has put a cloth over the back of the chair next to LEELA.)
REUBEN: I'll use the semaphore tomorrow. Likely the police will be wanting to see you.
DOCTOR: Oh, very likely.
(LEELA starts to wipe her mouth on the cloth.)
REUBEN: Do you mind?
LEELA: What is it for?
REUBEN: Shroud.
LEELA: What is that?
REUBEN: In England, we have proper customs. It ain't fitting for a body just to be left.
DOCTOR: Reuben, do you think we had something to do with your friend's death?
REUBEN: I know what I know, and I know what I think.
DOCTOR: Incontrovertible.
REUBEN: And don't start talking your own lingo to each other either. I won't have that.
DOCTOR: What are you going to do, clap us in irons?
REUBEN: I'm senior in this station now.
DOCTOR: Reuben, we're only trying to help.
REUBEN: Vince and me will manage, thank you, mister. I'll just go and tend to Ben.
(He leaves.)
DOCTOR: Stubborn old mule.
LEELA: Doctor, do you think this creature, whatever it is, will return?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
LEELA: Well, if it is out on the rocks, we must take weapons and hunt it.
(She gestures with her knife.)
DOCTOR: I don't fancy playing tag in the fog with something that can do that. I think I'll go and have a word with Vince.
(LEELA grabs a larger knife from the table area and starts heading downstairs on her own. She moves past REUBEN, who is tending the body, and exits the lighthouse.)

[INT. Lamp room]

DOCTOR: A fireball?
VINCE: Mm.
DOCTOR (giving him his full attention) A fireball?
VINCE: Yes.
DOCTOR: What time was that?
VINCE: A couple of hours ago, just getting dusk. It went into the sea, over there.
DOCTOR: How far away?
VINCE: Oh, mile or two, near as I could tell. Don't know how big it was, you see. And then the fog came down, and then it got cold all of a sudden.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, I noticed the cold. You're a good lad, Vince.
VINCE: Thank you, sir.
(Knife at the ready, LEELA picks her way through the rocks in the fog, to the accompaniment of the foghorn. At the shoreline, she finds several fish floating in the water. She prods them with the knife, verifying that they are all dead. We hear the crackling sound nearby.
We then re-join the DOCTOR.)
DOCTOR: Of course, on Pharos they had slaves to keep the bonfires going.
VINCE: I suppose it's all different abroad. Didn't know they still had slaves, though.
DOCTOR: Ah, yes, and I'll tell you something else now. On Gallifrey-
VINCE: Gallifrey?
(REUBEN steps in.)
DOCTOR: Yes, Galli-
REUBEN: I'll take over here, boy. Time you got some supper.
VINCE: Oh, I'm all right.
REUBEN: Long night ahead of us. Expect you'll be tired, mister.
DOCTOR: Oh no, not a bit of it. Don't mind me.
REUBEN: I, erm, stoked the boiler and made Ben decent. Off you go, boy.
(VINCE leaves. The DOCTOR stands, thinking.)

[INT. Stairs]

(VINCE hears a crackling noise and stops his rapid descent of the stairs.)
VINCE: Is someone down there? Ben?
(He looks back up the way he's come.
Meanwhile, LEELA is heading back to the lighthouse. We see a glowing nearby and our visitor's view of her picking her way through the rocks.)

[INT. Generator room]

(VINCE sees that Ben's body is missing. He runs down the rest of the steps. He grabs the speaking tube on the wall and blows extra-hard to alert REUBEN.)
VINCE: Reuben! It's Ben! He's walking!

[INT. Lamp room]

REUBEN: What's that? Pull yourself together, boy.

[INT. Generator room]

VINCE: I tell you, he's not down here now. He's gone! You said he would. You said he wouldn't rest-
(LEELA returns from outside.)
LEELA: Did it come in here? (stopping and grabbing VINCE) What is the matter?

[INT. Lamp room]

REUBEN: Vince!
DOCTOR: Reuben, there's a light out there.
REUBEN: What?
DOCTOR: There's a light out there.
(REUBEN, in his usual slow and deliberate manner, steps outside to join him.)

[INT. Generator room]

(LEELA throws the shroud down.)
LEELA: The dead do not walk. That is not possible.
VINCE: Well, all I know is I heard a dragging sort of noise and when I came down here, he'd gone.
LEELA: Well, there was something out on the rocks just now. Perhaps-
(The speaking tube whistles.)
VINCE: (into the tube) Hello? Right. (hanging up) It's Reuben. He says there's a ship off the rocks. She's going to strike. (He bounds up the stairs, with LEELA following.)

[INT. Lamp gallery]

(REUBEN is watching the ship through the telescope.)
REUBEN: You'm right. Steam yacht, by the look of it.
DOCTOR: And going fast.
REUBEN: He's a fool to be going at all on a night like this.
(REUBEN heads back in.)

[INT. Lamp room]

REUBEN: Warning devices, Vince.
VINCE: I got 'em.
REUBEN: (to VINCE) Take over the siren. She'll strike any minute.

[EXT. Ship]

WOMAN: Help! Please, somebody, help me!
MAN: Steer the boat!
(Other panicked shouts can be heard from the boat, below the din of the warning bells and foghorn.)

[INT. Lamp gallery]

(Everyone at the lighthouse is watching from the gallery.)
REUBEN: It's no use. They're too late to alter course. She's going to strike!
(He fires a flare, which should be visible far and wide. The light, from this and a second flare, also lets us watch as the ship heads onto the rocks.)

The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl

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